An Artistic Mistake
by SSSP-shhh
Summary: An aspiring ninja named Kae learns a bit about the past, while Naruto and Sasuke learn a lot about themselves. Multichapter fic, SasuNaru lemon eventually.
1. Storytime

An Artistic Mistake

Kae ran from rooftop to rooftop in the baking afternoon sun, giddy from his adventure. Voices from the village alleys and streets did not deter him as he tapped loudly across his neighbors' rooftops. A faint scolding by Old Ino could still be heard ("Kaesu, Kaesu! Get back here! Your mother will hear about this!") as Kae ran happily away, prize under arm.

Kae jumped for a while across the city top, enjoying the feeling of exercising his legs, until the village thinned out and he couldn't jump anymore. He helped himself down, and briskly made his way into the residential part of the village in the forest. After a short walk, a quaint cottage came into view and Kae became stealth itself. The large dogs around the house noted him as of no importance, as they had seen Kae far too many a time to care and were used to his presence.

Unsheathing his liberated prize from Ino, he left it on the front porch and snuck away.

Kae decided to take his favorite detour to get home on a path that followed the shore of the lake. The setting sun glistened on the waves that softly hit the old wooden docks. Young ninja were practicing water-walking, a skill Kae was soon to learn. Kae smiled and waved to one, and the ninja, losing concentration, landed splashing into the water. Kae laughed and continued along the path at a brisk pace.

"Oof!"

A large person had walked right into Kae. He gave a reassuring smile, while scratching the back of his spiky blonde hair. "Sorry little man. Didn't see you there."

"Sorry, sorry," Kae said while bowing. This didn't look like a man to mess with, with six scars adorning his cheeks.

"Don't worry about it!" The man ruffled Kae's hair and sauntered off, whistling.

Dinner was simple – fish, vegetables, and rice – and Kae secretly wished there was more. Sakura, though, (his mother) would never allow them to eat sweet bean paste – too unhealthy for a woman in the medic ninja career.

"Pass the soy sauce?" Kae's older brother said.

"So, Kae, Ino has told me that you have been stealing flowers from her shop again," Sakura said as she passed the soy sauce. A stern look was given to the young ninja.

"Oh no, he hasn't been up to that again, has he?" Neji looked disapprovingly at his son, putting down his chopsticks.

"But mom, flowers grow for free, so she should give them for free! She's cheating people that way!" Kae complained.

"No, Kae. Ino and Sai have to make their living somehow, so I won't have you taking their flowers, again, you hear?"

Kae grumbled and stabbed his rice ball with chopsticks.

"Why do you need flowers anyway?" Kae's brother asked.

Kae sat in bed, as Sakura walked in to tell her nightly history lesson. She knelt by Kae, smoothing the blankets down and brushing his unruly hair out of his face.

"Aww mom, aren't I getting a bit old for this?" Kae complained.

"Nonsense! You're never too old for a good bedtime story," Sakura playfully scolded him. (Kae gagged inwardly at the term "bedtime story".) "Besides," she continued, "I think you'll really like this one. It's about the war."

_I doubt it, _Kae rolled his eyes (mentally of course, Sakura would kill him otherwise).

"Once upon a time –" Sakura started.

"There was a princess trapped in a castle, I know, I know," Kae interrupted. "Can we get to the good part already?"

Sakura huffed loudly ("Your manners are going to get you into trouble one day!") and started once more. "Once upon a time, not too long ago, there was a war between many powerful ninja. An exiled ninja group, called the Akatsuki, wanted to use the power of the Nine Tailed Fox to wage constant war. However, the boy that the Fox was sealed in was much stronger than the Akatsuki had anticipated. I bet you know who he is, right?"

Kae looked up at Sakura after gazing at the wall to his left. "Yeah, yeah. Naruto, something, hero of Kahona or whatnot."

"Naruto Uzumaki. When the war was brought to our very own Kahona, Naruto had to simultaneously protect the village and the Fox inside him. The war was not going well for Kahona. The Akatsuki and their allies had destroyed most of the village and many brave shinobi fell."

"You're making this all up, aren't you?" Kae said with a yawn. "Our village isn't destroyed."

"No, it's not. And it's all because of one man. Actually, two men. Do you know who they were?"

"Naruto and…"

"Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke had come to destroy the village, but somehow, and no one knows, even to this day, how Naruto convinced Sasuke to come back to our side. With Sasuke's help, we were able to overpower the Akatsuki and take back Kahona. We are in debt to him to this day."

There was a considerable pause, and Sakura thought Kae might have fallen asleep. Sakura pulled the blankets up closer to Kae's face, and made to leave. "But… that doesn't make any sense," Sakura heard a sleepy Kae say. "Sasuke is trapped in his house and no one can see him. He… can't be the hero. Kahona… hates him…"

A soft snore came from the futon and Sakura left the room.

* * *

><p><strong>This story has been in the works for several months. I will get to SasuNaru eventually. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed coming up the idea.<strong>

**Review Review!**

**~B**


	2. Schoolyard Rivalry

**Hey guys, it's B! Yes, that's right, there's a new chapter to this story. Woot!**

**Chapter rating: T for mild blood.**

* * *

><p>Kae sprinted faster than all of his classmates as he ran towards the target. He snatched a kunai from his waste pouch, giving Gaki the sly finger as he went. Smooth lineups by Kae's kunai, in time with his even run. <em>Bang Bam Boom!<em> Every target hit straight on! Kae drew a shuriken, spun around, then smashed the target again: a sly smile and a cheeky bow. Look! There was Hana, cheering for him! Kae winked. How pretty she looked, slightly sweaty from the sun, hair pulled back into a loose knot, and her lips so—

_WHACK._

"Ouch!" A stream of curses emitted from Kae's mouth. "What was _that_ for?" Kae demanded, looking for his assailant. "Oh… Hello Choji-sensei."

Sensei gave Kae a stern look as the surrounding students stifled giggles. "'That' as you called it," Choji began, "Is only a small taste of what you will get if you don't pay attention in class again. Secondly," Choji-sensei paused and gazed poker-faced around the room. "What is the most basic type of jutsu crafted from? Kaesu?" Sensei's eyes flashed.

Kae gulped. This was Sensei's sneaky way of getting back at him for swearing as Kae woke up. "…Uhh… Hand signs…?" The class giggled again.

Choji-sensei swiftly turned and faced Kae. "Incorrect." As sensei turned his back to Kae, he muttered, "Fatty".

A heavy silence weighed on the room. A student coughed.

"What," Choji-sensei asked calmly while slowly turning on his heel, "Did you call me?"

Shit. "Umm. Nothing sensei, nothing. I didn't say anything! I swear!" Kae frantically looked back and forth, as if searching for an escape route.

"OUT! Out, out, out!" Choji-sensei expanded his monstrous arm, lifted Kae up by the belt loop ("Let me go, let me go!"), and swept him out the window.

It wasn't so bad being kicked out of class, not really. Kae got to use the targets before everyone else got out of class. Yes, Kae had a great opportunity here, except for the fact that Choji-sensei didn't throw his pack of kunai out the window with him.

Kae resorted to throwing rocks instead.

By the time the final bell did ring, there were several rocks lying in front of an unused target and a snoozing Kae under a shady tree.

Unfortunately, Kae was rudely awoken for the second time that day.

"Hey, loser!" Gaki, a hulking, overlarge oaf with an attitude problem (also featured in Kae's daydream), called to Kae from across the yard. "Heh, he looked when I called him loser," Gaki goaded to his cronies.

"Yo, Gaki, I thought you were talking to yourself again." _Smooth retort Kae, smooth. _Kae thought to himself.

Gaki cracked his knuckles menacingly. "Ohoho, are you looking to start a fight, loser?"

"Maybe I am!"

"You were such a wimp, being thrown out by sensei, _again_."

"I didn't hear _you_ trying to answer the question."

"I didn't have to!" Gaki laughed boisterously. "I knew you'd screw up enough that you'd be kicked out anyway." By now, the arguing boys were tense within each other's personal space; a small crowd had gathered around them. Gaki's cronies catcalled.

"You wouldn't know anything, even if 'anything' asked you out!" Kae fired back, breathing heavily.

A soft "ooh" was murmured among the crowd.

"At least I can actually _ask_ someone out." A knowing look suddenly came to Gaki's eyes. "You don't even have the guts." Kae's balled his fists and clenched his jaw. "Stay away from my sister, Kaesu-_chan_. She doesn't need you following her around like a puppy. What are you, a wimp, leaving a flower on our front doorstep?" Gaki guffawed as biting laughter emitted from the crowd. "What you going to do, huh-"

_Crack_.

Gaki yelled while clutching his face. "Abh, ma nose! _Bastah_! Gib him!"

Interpreting their leader's garbled command as a battle cry, Gaki's friends, all quite skilled ninja, surrounded Kae. _Shit._

A practical soul called out from the crowd. "Someone get Choji-sensei!"

Kae, a skinny boy for twelve, was not counting on fighting six more-skilled ninja (although he would never admit it) than he. The smart action to any logical ninja would be to tactfully retreat. Kae was never known to do the smart thing.

If Kae were in an alternate world at this moment, he might have said the famous: "Come at me, bro!" Regretfully, he was not in this alternate world, so Kae could only say the slightly less intimidating, "Bring it on!" with a waggling of his index finger. He wasn't going to take this crap from people dumber than dirt.

Needless to say, Kae did not do extremely well in this fight. (Actually, that's probably the understatement of the year.) Kae got his butt handed to him in this fight. Yet, at one point, when feebly trying to dodge another quick punch to the cheek… time slowed down. Kae could suddenly _see_ the fist coming for his face, but so slow, it took a week to get to his flesh. Or, at least, it would have hit his flesh if Kae hadn't had the sense to step out of the way.

Rato (the would-be face attacker) was thrown off balance, momentum conserved all the way to the ground. Again, in Kae's eyes, it took a week for Rato to hit the ground. It was if all of Kae's being was transferred to his eyeballs; every movement, every speck of dust was clear as crystal, stayed within range of vision. All six of his attackers were moving frame by frame towards him. Kae's body felt light: limbs could move double speed. Sound was non-existent; it wasn't needed. Silence permeated the never-ending frames of clarity.

Inspiration came to Kae in one burst of insight: ninjas learned a little something about taking out unguarded opponents; boys knew a lot of somethings about places didn't want to be kicked. Kae laughed internally from the slow surprise on the boys' faces.

For the crowd, the fight lasted the span of two seconds. First Kae was surrounded, next, Kae was up and all six attackers were on the ground instead. Time sped back up, like a tape put on fast-forward, the crowd created a roaring in Kae's ears.

A triumphant toothy smile as Kae gloated his victory: cheeky winks all around. Then—

"Ahh! Ahh my eyes!" Kae keeled over, clutching his face. Excruciating pain, hot needles pierced his eyelids and Kae dropped to his knees. Was he crying? He brought his hands away from his face. No… was that… blood?

"Hey, hey! What's going on here?" Choji-sensei interjected, arriving on scene.

Gaki and his cronies gave no indication that the fight had to do with them, besides quietly standing up and nursing their wounds. A harsh whisper from Gaki pierced Kae's pain: "I'll geb you bahk."

The crowd quickly dispersed while Kae gasped for breath on the ground; some kind-hearted souls had tried to come to his aid but Choji-sensei gently shooed them away. Sensei bent down and asked, "Kaesu, what's wrong?"

_What's wrong? My damn eyes are on fire, that's what's wrong!_

The child looked up at Choji with a haunted expression. Blood ran down Kaesu's bruised cheeks and pooled near his chin. But what struck Choji the most were Kae's irises: they were as red as the liquid on Kae's face.

* * *

><p><strong>Cliffhanger! Dun dun dunnnnn. evil laughter**

**Yes, yes, I know, there wasn't any mention of Naruto or Sasuke in this chapter. I promise that's chapter three! Stay tuned!**

**Reviews get virtual cake. ;D**


End file.
